It's love, not obsession.

With ships, that is. And the ocean. All oceans. And any large body of water, really.

As promised on my other blog, here are photos from my recent day trip up to Onancock.

Remember back when I went to see the tall ships in Norfolk, and couldn't identify one ship? Imagine my delight at finding it right in front of me, again. Like running into an old friend. (Just an old friend whose name I can't remember... which, really, isn't all that uncommon in my case.) And this time, I got to step aboard.

The ship is the Godspeed, a replica of one of the three ships English colonists traveled in to establish Jamestown in 1607.

As I drove home, I crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, and crossed the same waters that those original colonists, caught in a terrible storm in the Atlantic, were blown into. Lucky for them.

(This view is looking west into the Chesapeake Bay from a pullout on the northern end of the bridge. So there is land in that direction. You can see a little bit on the right hand side as a sort of wiggle in the horizon. The size of the Chesapeake Bay awes me. Someday, I'd like to really explore it. You know, when I build my own ship.)

The beach on Fisherman Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Yes, a good day. Filled with love.

No need to curtsy, unless you want to.

Oh... yes. I've always wanted my own title. Doesn't everyone?

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Milady the Most Honourable Alison the Omnipresent of Walk upon Water Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

I'm not sure about the word "honourable" because it sounds so stern and judge-like, but I do like the rest of it. Maybe I'll get another one tomorrow. You can get your very own, here.

Via Belinda of Bel's Nook.

(Just a side note... my two blogs are in a neck-and-neck race for number of posts... this post brings this blog into the lead with 82 posts, but lest the other one feel neglected, feel free to pop on over there to read my latest art-related news.)

Coming Attractions

It's always when I post the least that it seems the most is happening. That seems a bit backwards. I'll work on that.

I am delighted to announce that I've joined the Fantasy Artists of Etsy street team, and I look forward to becoming part of this amazing group of artists.

I've also signed up for two art shows/sales in the Hampton Roads area:

I'll be in Artist's Alley at FantaSci 6 at the Hampton Roads Convention Center on September 29 and 30.

And, pending acceptance, I will be part of the Handmade Parade hosted by the Norfolk Craft Mafia on November 10.

I am very excited about both shows (although a bit nervous). I've been drawing and painting like a fiend to have enough work just to fill up my table. (Which also means that if you had any intention of purchasing one of the originals I have in my Etsy shop right now, step right up, because I'll be taking them with me to the show in two weeks).

If you're in the area, please stop by and say hello.

This weekend, I also had the opportunity to attend the Grand Opening of the Red Queen Gallery, in the charming town of Onancock, Virginia, where ten of my paintings are eagerly seeking new homes. It was a marvelous event. The gallery looks beautiful, open and sun-filled and colorful, and I am both awed by the work of the other artists and honored to be in their company. If you're anywhere near there, do stop in, and, while you're there, take a map of the town, also drawn by yours truly. And on top of seeing the gallery and meeting a number of wonderful people, I took a jaunt down to the wharf, and scrambled all over the Godspeed for a while. Any day with a ship in it is a good day, is it not?

Conversation at My House

LIVING ROOM, LAST NIGHT:

ALISON: Aieeee! OWWWW, ow, ow, ow, OWWWW. Ah, that hurts!

AL: What happened?

ALISON: I don't know! I stepped on something! My foot hurts!

(ALISON collapses onto couch, grabs aching heel, reaches down, picks up small, hard object off of floor, and holds it up for Al to see.)

AL: (pause) You got attacked by a Hershey's Kiss?

Toes in the Water

It's a little overwhelming, really. I have 926 photographs from my road trip.* That doesn't count the 20 to 30 I already deleted. So it may take me a while to go through them all thoroughly, and I certainly have no intentions of making you all look at 926 photographs, anyway. But perhaps you'd enjoy a quick taste, with a heartier sampler to come.

On this trip, I...

... made the acquaintance of a barn kitten at the Laura Ingalls homestead...



... snapped only one good photo at Mount Rushmore before the camera battery died....



... discovered, at least once a day, why so many people call summer "road construction season"...



... drove through a forest fire...



...almost ran off the road a few times because the Columbia River Gorge is so incredibly beautiful... my photographs don't even come close to doing it justice...



...found myself - or my tattoo, really - to be an object of fascination...



...spent some time traveling alongside a future meal...



... learned that small town America doesn't just exist in the movies...



... found our next house, a nice little fixer-upper (good road access, potential for a ski ramp in the back yard)... hey, real estate near Steamboat Springs isn't cheap...



... learned the answer to the question, "Mom, why do you think that field over there is so yellow?," once we got up close...



...met a retired Thoroughbred, although, really, he wasn't all that keen on meeting a bunch of strangers...



... and whole-heartedly disagreed with the statement that once you've seen a sunset, you've seen them all, because, oh, my, oh, my, this might just have been the best sunset I've ever seen in my entire life.

I also spent a lot of time lamenting that, with such a tight schedule, I didn't have more time to get out the car and take better photographs. I suppose I'll just have to go again.

* That's approximately 1 photograph for every 7 miles driven, which, honestly, doesn't seem like that much to me, when I look at it that way.

Madeleine L'Engle, 1918-2007

Thank you, for Flip and Poly, especially.

***

Of all the authors in the world, no one shaped my worldview or the person I am today in the way that Madeleine L'Engle did. She is, without question, my absolute favorite author. (Only L.M. Montgomery comes close.) She was a big part of my decision as a teenager to become a writer.

I am heartbroken and I think I am most likely not alone.

May she rest in peace.

Expedition Report

My apologies, but this will be visually unexciting, just a quick hello. After two days visiting with my mother before she flew back to Reno, and two nearly catatonic days*, I am just now getting my act back together. I do promise photographs very, very soon... I am now (thanks, Mom) the proud owner of a new Canon PowerShot, but have temporarily misplaced the manual so I still have to figure out how to get the photographs from there to here.

Off-hand, the incredible things I saw include South Dakota (all of it); Powell's City of Books (and, as promised, I was NOT disappointed. That place is a dream come true); sunset over the Great Salt Lake; Churchill Downs (the big question now being, should I buy the Thoroughbred before or after I build my sailboat?); the Columbia River Gorge (aka a living Maxfield Parrish painting); the site of the original Little House on the Prairie; and a forest fire I apparently drove through, although I didn't see any actual flames, only one thick column of smoke coming up from the brush twenty feet off the highway, at which point I thought, Man, they were serious when they put out those "No Stopping Next 10 Miles" and "Caution Fire Ahead" signs, and decided not to actually get out of the car and shoot some close-ups. Sorry. I have some general shots to share, though.

That's just the beginning of the list.

I visited with a number of incredible people, including one very special person from far away, one lovely couple who made me fantastic tomato sandwiches, and friends who graciously housed my mother and me in Colorado. All of the visits were far too short.

I came home with a notebook full of receipts, one magnet, one tin lunch pail and a corncob doll (just like Laura's), a handful of coasters, three new books (yes, I showed remarkable restraint), a pile of postcards, a number of pressed pennies, two Harley-Davidson t-shirts for my husband, two charms for my bracelet, two coffee mugs (only the coolest coffee mugs ever), three boxes of my grandmother's things, and her sewing machine, which I would hesitate to even touch if I didn't know she'd be right there saying, "I know you can do it, Sweet Thing."

Oh, and a hotel ice bucket that found its way into my ice cooler. It wasn't me, that I can swear to you.

p.s. Did I mention that the bride looked absolutely stunning?

p.p.s. And it was actually 7100 miles all together. And I learned that one can average 50 mph over a day in West Virginia and Kentucky, but 73 mph over a day in South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, rest stops included.

* I am not exaggerating about the catatonia; I thought I had another weird virus, a peril of travelers, you know, but now I realize it was either just plain exhaustion or altitude sickness from traversing three mountain ranges five times in two weeks, which would explain a lot of strange symptoms I had during the trip